A. The Problem Solved by the HOPA-ClearS Method/Apparatus
The Handover (HO) Proactive Association Clearing Support (HOPA-ClearS) method/system supports
minimizing, for at least one netsurfing endsystem Ayz (see EP 2027747, “HOBIS”), Which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, its HO times, and
optimizing a given market satisfaction function, MSFO, potentially depending on Internet-apps,
for whichever underlying HO technique, by potentially establishing pre-HO for free x/yz-, netsurfing x/yz-, and/or Sxyzj-association (plural “s” often omitted), called “clearing” them. It may use, as parameters, a HOPA-ProvS data structure (see U.S. 61/490,469, “HOPA-ProvS”)—potentially making it “quality guaranteeing”, anyway “residual best effort” based, otherwise being “just best effort”—and Internet application service Sxyzj, abbreviated Sj, provided to Ayz or its user, and additional market satisfaction function MSFxyzjm, abbreviated MSFm, x,y,z,j,m=1,2,3, . . .
An HO of an Ayz is optimal if its HO-time is “basically zero” and it complies with MSF0, potentially also taking the HOPA-ProvS data structure into account. Then the technical innovation of the HOPA-ClearS method/system may be put as follows: It comprises for an Ayz determining anytime—hence pre-HO—its optimal HOs, potentially limited to optimality over the HOPA-ProvS data structure.
I.e.: This permanent predetermination of optimal HOs implies—due to dynamically changing services available to or requested from the Ayz—assessing permanently all MSFm (being uniformly/Ayz-specifically/Ayz-group-specifically given e.g. by the managements of the Ayz, such as: always or at certain occasions select the cheapest service or the best service or provided by a certain implementation or . . . ) subject to a given global market satisfaction function MSF0 assessing some given global qualities of the clearing processes (such as: no Ayz must starve, no sharedIADx is overbooked, no cost unnecessarily incurred, one Ayz gets always best quality, . . . ,) and establishing the resp. x/yz-, netsurfing x/yz-, and Sxyzj-associations. Thus, when an Ayz must perform an HO, these pre-HO operations—using Ayz'es homeIADz/Internet and/or the sharedIADx'es WLAN and/or still another network than these two—of the HOPA-ClearS method/system would have already identified at least one optimal HO for it to a sharedIADx and/or an Sxyzj available to it and established the resp. x/yz-, netsurfing x/yz-, and Sxyzj-associations.
Hence, by its innovative pre-HO operations, the HOPA-ClearS method/system resolves the problem to manage the communications between the elements of its parameters, such that always holds:
the HO-times of Ayz to sharedIADx/Sj are reduced to basically zero, and
the market satisfaction functions MSFm and MSFO are maintained and in this sense optimal, and
instant, seamless, and individually/groupwise targeted changes of its parameters and/or its implementation versions are enabled, as required e.g. for meeting dynamically changing requirements of Ayz users.
That, as seen post-HO, most such pre-HO activities of the HOPA-ClearS method/system have been useless, is economically often by far overcompensated by its just outlined advantages.
The HOPA-ClearS method/system works on top of all today's networks between/within which HOs are to be executed—though it may be integrated into networks and/or their HO mechanisms, as well—yet requires sufficiently powerful netsurfing Ayz and IADs and for efficiency Internet-apps' implementations supporting it.
B. The Novelty and the Nonobviousness of the HOPA-ClearS Method/System
The novelty of the HOBIS invention has just been established by the HOBIS patent. As the HOPA-ClearS method/apparatus builds on top of the HOBIS invention, there is absolutely no prior art for it—so far no inventor has ever thought into this direction and disclosed a technique teaching enabling resolving the above quoted problem. This makes not only its novelty self-explanatory, but also its nonobviousness.